Difference between revisions of "1130: Poll Watching"

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{{comic
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Dear Comic Book People:My name is Mandela Addah. I live in Toronto, Canada.I am a professional comic srpertwcitir seeking employment. Hopefully with you. I like to write superhero and I have had work published elsewhere.All my comic books are wholesome. They have lots of action and adventure. My comics do not have any sex, swearing, or bloody violence, and none of my books feature scantily clad women with unrealistic figures.I would like to know if you are looking for new talent. If so, confirm. I will then e-mail you a short 5 page script about a character I created called Rush. If you go over it you will see that I know my job and would be a credit to your team.Please get back to me and tel me what you think.
| number    = 1130
 
| date      = November 5, 2012
 
| title    = Poll Watching
 
| image    = poll_watching.png
 
| imagesize =
 
| titletext = The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on the charts on Nate Silver's blog!
 
}}
 
 
 
==Explanation==
 
This is a comic about the {{w|United States presidential election, 2012|2012 U.S. presidential election}}, as it was posted the day before the election on November 6, 2012 ("this Tuesday"). It is the third comic on the subject, the previous two being [[1122: Electoral Precedent]] and [[1127: Congress]].
 
 
 
In the comic, [[Cueball]] is glued to his laptop reading media coverage of the election. The offscreen character remarks that Cueball should take a break, suggesting that Cueball has been reading media coverage for quite a while.
 
 
 
Cueball is so caught up in media coverage that he is speculating on the effect that incumbent President {{w|Barak Obama|Obama}} winning the election (and the resulting news coverage) could have on challenger {{w|Mitt Romney}}'s campaign. The joke is that the end-goal of Romney's campaign is to win the election. If Obama wins, the campaigning is already over, regardless of media coverage. Cueball is simply so invested that he overanalyzes potential scenarios and fails to see the big picture.
 
 
 
Specifically, he has become so concerned with following the polls that he's lost sight of their purpose as a predictive tool. After the election is over, polling becomes trivial since the result they are intended to forecast is already known (and so in reality will not be conducted at all). This is likely intended as a rebuke to those pundits who seemingly care more about (or whose jobs are contingent on caring more about) the "game" of analyzing and predicting the politics of the race than the actual policies the candidates are likely to pursue after coming into office.
 
 
 
The title text repeats this theme with {{w|Nate Silver}}, an American statistician, {{w|psephologist}}, and writer (among other things). He has a political blog called {{w|FiveThirtyEight}} which was originally written under a pseudonym. The Blog and its associated website primarily discuss tracking polls in respect to elections. Thus, the choices made on Tuesday (election day) ''will'' have massive and permanent effects on FiveThirtyEight's charts, which will obviously change to reflect the actual votes cast - but all the charts will have become trivial since the purpose of the blog is to predict the results. This is a parody of the bold statements often made during campaigns, such as that the choices made on election day could have massive and permanent effects on such things as your health care, the economy, your job, etc.
 
 
 
==Transcript==
 
:[Cueball kneels on his desk chair, hunched over a laptop]
 
:Cueball: This Tuesday will be huge!
 
:Cueball: If Obama wins the election, it could generate news coverage ''devastating'' to Romney's position in the tracking polls!
 
:Offscreen character: ... Maybe you should take a break.
 
 
 
{{comic discussion}}
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Politics]]
 

Revision as of 17:40, 22 February 2013

Dear Comic Book People:My name is Mandela Addah. I live in Toronto, Canada.I am a professional comic srpertwcitir seeking employment. Hopefully with you. I like to write superhero and I have had work published elsewhere.All my comic books are wholesome. They have lots of action and adventure. My comics do not have any sex, swearing, or bloody violence, and none of my books feature scantily clad women with unrealistic figures.I would like to know if you are looking for new talent. If so, confirm. I will then e-mail you a short 5 page script about a character I created called Rush. If you go over it you will see that I know my job and would be a credit to your team.Please get back to me and tel me what you think.